Mother Rat

March 1st, 2009, 01:58

Anyone have any advice for dealing with Mother Rat? My party doesn't seem to survive very long and she must have a zillion HP's. I also appear to be trapped in her lair, so I can't even make an expeditious retreat!!

My immediate advice is to come back later, with level 6+ or so. That's what I did (my party had levels from 7-8 and I still found the encounter challenging). You do have more than one savegame, don't you?

That's a fight that was misplaced a bit in the game in that it was available too early. And the rats are way too intelligent and powerful for their level, as they always attack the weakest party member first. They produce wounds quickly and if one of your characters gets 5 wounds, they die.

Spoiler

One trick I've heard about was to lure her to the entrance or even farther back to where you came from, so that when a new pack of 3 rats spawns they won't see you. Also, be sure that you don't engage her when there are still other rats around. In my first tries there was another pack of rats that patrolled near her, which were way too many to deal with on top of the mother. The fight should start with her being alone, then after a short while she'll periodically get help from 3 more rats.

— "Mystery is important. To know everything, to know the whole truth, is dull. There is no magic in that. Magic is not knowing, magic is wondering about what and how and where." ~ Cortez, from The Longest Journey

You just need to kill everything that attacks your characters with magical possibilities, imho, because the rats attack them first.

You also need "Selbstbeherrschung" ("endurance" ?) at a relatively high level.
And dexterity, too.

Plus, of course, good armor and weapons.

I also used weakening spells much.
And came back with level 8 or so.

Mother Rat is something of an "insider's joke gone wrong", because it is actually kind of a parody on the usual beginner's quests of RPGs "clear my cellar of rats".

— “ Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage – to move in the opposite direction.“ (E.F.Schumacher, Economist, Source)

Originally Posted by Corwin
Anyone have any advice for dealing with Mother Rat? My party doesn't seem to survive very long and she must have a zillion HP's. I also appear to be trapped in her lair, so I can't even make an expeditious retreat!!

I thought I was screwed there too, as I went there at level 3 and no matter what I tried, most I did was get it to half health. Luckily for me, I had decided to leave the dungeon at the last level to get Dranor, so when I faced the rat (quicksaving after the area was locked), I didn't miss anything as the autosave was right there.
I'm just about to finish the Moors, so I hope it's revenge time on that rat for my group!

I managed to kill her at level 9 I think. Like Arhu said, you should engage her only after she's alone - enter the chamber, and then try to lure the other rats to you and get rid of them. After that you can save in a different slot, and cast all the buffing spells you want. One thing I learned was to always kill the rats that she summons. Those rats are pretty powerful, they inflict wounds quickly, so when they appear, ignore the mother and kill them first, otherwise they'll knock out your entire party in no time. Just order everyone to attack the same rat, kill it, then focus on the next one. It worked for me. Of course, you need some luck, because the tide can turn in a matter of one round, if you suddenly get three wounds from one bite…

I think you should have at least two warrior-types in the party, since my magic users were knocked out pretty early during every try.

Oh, and more thing: summon a creature if you can. I had someone summon a boar, and it helped a lot during the first rounds of the battle, because almost all the rats focused on the boar.

I thought that this quest was pretty cool - the boss was a real challenge! It was fun to come back to that cave at differents points in the game and try to beat the rat mother (and to discover that I'm *still* too weak, heh). I don't know if the difficulty of it was unintentional, but I still liked it.

Edit: A bit off topic but: *if* you already did the Dranor quest in there, then the location will be closed after you beat the Mother Rat. So, before you leave…

I killed her at level 8, with my standard party with only 1 tank. AFAIR the dwarf was sent to mother Ratczinsky, to keep her busy. The others were concentrating their fire on one rat as far as possible. Combat speed was set to minimum, I entered every single move by hand.

It took me 2 or 3 tries, 30 minutes each. When one of your characters gets knocked out you can reload. It's really hard to say when you have to heal when healing takes more than one round.

Originally Posted by Gorath
Combat speed was set to minimum, I entered every single move by hand.

You can change the combat speed? I made very frequent use of the pause button …

Ah, and yeah, if the fight has been going well for a while, you can save the game, even in combat. Very useful for longer encounters.

— "Mystery is important. To know everything, to know the whole truth, is dull. There is no magic in that. Magic is not knowing, magic is wondering about what and how and where." ~ Cortez, from The Longest Journey

No, they don't respawn. And you can even ask the dwarf letting you in to take you down to the fourth level, no need to go all the way there by yourself again.

— "Mystery is important. To know everything, to know the whole truth, is dull. There is no magic in that. Magic is not knowing, magic is wondering about what and how and where." ~ Cortez, from The Longest Journey

Originally Posted by Krzychu
I managed to kill her at level 9 I think. Like Arhu said, you should engage her only after she's alone - enter the chamber, and then try to lure the other rats to you and get rid of them. After that you can save in a different slot, and cast all the buffing spells you want. One thing I learned was to always kill the rats that she summons. Those rats are pretty powerful, they inflict wounds quickly, so when they appear, ignore the mother and kill them first, otherwise they'll knock out your entire party in no time. Just order everyone to attack the same rat, kill it, then focus on the next one. It worked for me. Of course, you need some luck, because the tide can turn in a matter of one round, if you suddenly get three wounds from one bite…

I think you should have at least two warrior-types in the party, since my magic users were knocked out pretty early during every try.

Oh, and more thing: summon a creature if you can. I had someone summon a boar, and it helped a lot during the first rounds of the battle, because almost all the rats focused on the boar.

I thought that this quest was pretty cool - the boss was a real challenge! It was fun to come back to that cave at differents points in the game and try to beat the rat mother (and to discover that I'm *still* too weak, heh). I don't know if the difficulty of it was unintentional, but I still liked it.

Edit: A bit off topic but: *if* you already did the Dranor quest in there, then the location will be closed after you beat the Mother Rat. So, before you leave…

Spoiler

be sure to visit Dranor's cell again.

Azz!
I finished the Rat Mother quest yesterday and left the cellar.
What hav I missed not visiting Dranor cell again? Is it something important?

Originally Posted by Gragnak
What hav I missed not visiting Dranor cell again? Is it something important?

No, but a good joke !

— “ Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage – to move in the opposite direction.“ (E.F.Schumacher, Economist, Source)

I have a friend who is playing a battle mage and after entering the cave by the rats her magic abilities are all grayed out and she cannot cast spells. Is this part of the game or a bug does anyone know?

I have a friend who is playing a battle mage and after entering the cave by the rats her magic abilities are all grayed out and she cannot cast spells. Is this part of the game or a bug does anyone know?